An evening with Kazuo Ishiguro: One Day in the City

An evening with Kazuo Ishiguro: One Day in the City University College London and Harper’s Bazaar

This month, University College London and Harper’s Bazaar offered readers the rare opportunity to hear Kazuo Ishiguro in conversation with Professor John Mullan, head of UCL's English department and Guardian columnist. It is no wonder, then, that tickets in advance were sold out; nor did Ishiguro let down the packed lecture theatre. The Booker-prize winning author of Remains of the Day (1989) and Never Let Me Go (2005) was on scintillating form, offering achingly honest insights into the writing process with unassuming, yet deft wit.

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First, we learnt why Ishiguro had never written a novel with its setting in London; then we were gradually let into the bizarre story surrounding the writing of Ishiguro’s first short stories: the intense month spent in an old, disused psychiatric hospital then running as a cheap B&B. It was a refreshing, thought-provoking conclusion to the hottest day of the year and to UCL’s inspired celebration of London and literature: One Day in the City.

And, for those wise enough to make a day of it, it was quite the day in the city: John Agard, recipient of the Queen’s Medal for poetry and all-round legend of the spoken word, set the day alight with his Caribbean lilt; the novelists, Jonathan Coe and David Lodge, examined their love for Birmingham and London; whilst Will Self provoked and shocked with his insights into taboo language. There was carnival mashed with the spoken word; there were poets and barefoot wanderers; and there were short, in-a-nutshell literary introductions to some of the greatest writers about London: Chaucer, Milton, Fielding, Keats, Austen and T.S. Eliot. Harper’s Bazaar’s rich literary heritage was in full bloom on 13 June at UCL.